"wild vegetables" news and stories

Back when I first wrote about cattails, I promised a return to the subject soon for something I described as cattails on the cob. Allow me to explain this delicacy to you. In the late spring, if you watch cattail plants, you will notice that the well known sausage-like fruits of the cattail plant start to mature inside of the central leaves. Look at the leaves for a swelling and pull them out of the plant. If you slowly peel the husks away, you will find the two parts of the cattail flower inside. The upper, or male part of the flower is what we're after. These green spikes will bloom and produce pollen once they emerge from the husk which makes the season very short. If you find too many already blooming, don't fret, because the pollen is another of the offerings of this amazing plant.

Amy, Alec, and I journeyed Saturday once again to The Great Vly Swamp, in West Camp, New York. While Amy and Alec sought after dragonflies and birds to photograph, I started checking the cattails. I had just caught the season at the tail end, as many of the flowers were covered with pollen, and some of the sausage-like seed heads had already started to form. Even this late in the season, I still managed to harvest enough of the flower spikes to make an interesting side dish. Before we left the swamp, I grabbed a clean bag and collected some pollen by carefully bending the stem of the pollen covered flower into the bag and hitting the stem a couple of times. I managed to get about half a cup, but could have collected a lot more.

A quick look around before leaving gave me some other reasons to return to the swamp at a later date. Pickerelweed which will produce a nutty snack food in the early fall, and arrowheads, which produce a good wild potato substitute.

The ramp, also known as the wild leek (Allium tricoccum), is a member of the onion family that grows wild along much of the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. and Canada. With its broad, light green leaves, the ramp arrives at the tail end of winter. As in, now.

Ramps can be used in most any recipe calling for scallions or leeks - in Appalachia they're especially popular fried with bacon and potatoes. I like them in scrambled eggs, sauteed in a bit of butter. The city of Richwood, West Virginia, nicknamed "Ramp Capital of the World," has an annual ramp festival each April. In Quebec, where they're not quite as common as in Appalachia, they're considered an endangered species.

Check out more ramp info at The Forager Press, where they've got a yummy-sounding recipe for Salmon with Spring Leeks.

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